Wiley Accounting
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Discussion Topics for Today's Classroom

Snow plow woes

Description: So they have large and expensive houses there on Yacht Haven Lane in Saint John, New Brunswick, and so of course they pay their fair share of property taxes. You can imagine then, that the Yacht Haven Lane residents would expect the City to plow their road. But years ago, when the property developer, Sandy Robertson, began the development, his road into the community was classified as too narrow to be designated as a City of Saint John public road. Therefore he and the residents had to assume the costs of snow plowing, despite their contributions to the public purse.

2) If you were the Treasurer of the City of Saint John, what advice would you present to the City to help in the decision regarding snow plowing on Yacht Haven Lane?

3) If you are a company that has just received your property tax bill for the year, what journal entries would you need to record to set up the transactions related to property tax? Hint: You may want to take a look at Chapter 10 of Wiley’s Financial Accounting: Tools for Business Decision-Making.

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One Response to “Snow plow woes”

Dana Glew

Hello I live on Birchill ln. Which is considered a private road, with 4 houses it is not gated or do we have control of who access the road.
The city has been plowing our road for 30 years. This year after a review the city manager of some sort, after a review came across a grant of access dated 1996 which was the year I bought my house, it was a foreclosure.
One unreasonable neighbor decided that they could control the road. The bank and realtor drew up the grant of access.
The city used this grant of access as a excuse to stop plowing the road, 20 years later.
How bad is it that after 30 years the straight push for the plow truck which takes 5 minutes to plow the road is considered good management.
The city reminds me of the sheriff of Nottingham.
Another unhappy city resident